The Nano arrived in the post yesterday, and I finally got a chance to have a play with it late last night.
First impression? It’s very, very small indeedand light too. After handling the Nano for a while, the iPhone seems very bulky and heavy. How on earth they have fitted a bright colour screen, a video camera, an accelerometer, an FM radio, a battery, and whatever else into such a small enclosure is a mystery. It’s shockingly thin Everybody has been wondering about the video camera. I played with it a little last night, and was pleasantly surprised how good it was. Given the minimal processing capability, the thought that it might be able to capture 30 frames per second video and stereo sound has been a surprise. It’s pretty good quality too; granted, it’s not as good as a video camera, but what are the chances of you carrying a video camera everywhere with you? I’m expecting video blogging to explode as a result of the new Nano. The only slight wrinkle so far has been the lack of integration to download recorded video from the device. The iPhone automatically launches iPhoto on the Mac, which asks about downloading any photos you have taken. Not true of the iPod Nanoor at least not when I tested it. I had to delve into the instructions for the one and only time tooin order to get video off the iPod, you have to enable “use as a disk”, which is done through iTunes while it’s connected. The device came with an apparent full battery charge which I didn’t believe for a momentand was reflected by it’s rapid descent. I’m guessing Apple charge them a certain amount to perform diagnostics, and to install the firmware at the factory. It does mean the battery meter is not accurate at the moment, and probably won’t be until I have cycled the battery a few times. Reading on the internet, nobody seems to have a clear idea about the Nano trickle-charging when the meter reports a full chargegiven that the documentation mentions a 5 hour first charge, I’m willing to bet that it does trickle charge. I can’t really review the FM radiowe live in a natural bowl in the ground, which pretty much kills any radio reception worth bothering with (we have to rely on satellite television). Other commentators are reporting that the radio functionality is very goodespecially the facility to pause live radio. Look out for remarkably silly video from me very soon on YouTube